A/N: Heya. Writing hasn't come easy to me over the past two years (understatement of the century, I've written nothing for like half of it), but I'm trying.

Anyway, this was supposed to be a super long one, but I decided to split it up.

X

The drive to the McKinley's was tense.

Nobody spoke, though judging by the way Asa drummed his fingers against his knee and shot frequent glances towards the backseat, the biker had something to say. But Jared didn't care. He kept a heated stare on the back of Miles' head, the goth none the wiser as he drove them home in a daze. He'd been like that since laying eyes on Mr. Harris, who hadn't seen them and drove away, oblivious. There was something complicated in the way Miles stared after him, something…long buried. Delicate. It didn't take a genius to put two and two together.

At first Jared wanted to demand to know how he knew Dmitri. He wanted confirmation if his gut instinct was right, if Dmitri had been his college boyfriend, if he'd been the one to break his heart, his trust. He shoved aside the nagging voice of Rose reminding him that Dmitri had been the one to do the breaking, but he refused to believe that for one second. It was impossible. Dmitri could never shatter someone. Maybe the blond wasn't wholly innocent, but Miles was probably the bigger dick. As much as he wanted to find out, Jared had enough wherewithal to wait. Making a scene in the parking lot wasn't a grand idea, and he needed time to gather his thoughts. Until then, he sat fuming, not caring if he unnerved Asa or not. He would get his answers, and he would get them soon.

Before long, they reached the house. Miles killed the engine slowly, his eyes straight ahead. Asa watched his brother, his hands finally still. Jared narrowed his eyes before stiffly opening the door and exiting the vehicle. The air outside was just as hot as it'd been back at the school, and it only made him feel stuffy, and agitated. He paced a bit, waiting for the brothers to get out, the first being Asa.

"Jared," Asa murmured, making a beeline straight for him. He grabbed his shoulders, halting him. His face was flush with nerves, his eyes wide. "Calm down."

"No," he replied stubbornly, wrenching away. "I can't."

Asa watched him helplessly before cutting his eyes towards the car, where inside Miles seemed to be lost in his own head. "Look, I know you have a lot of questions, but now's not a good time—"

"I don't care."

Asa huffed, folding his arms. He kept quiet for a moment, his eyes following Jared as he paced and fumed. "He's my brother," Asa said shortly, his voice colored with something that might have been annoyance. Or trepidation.

Jared stopped and turned to look at him, his arms hanging at his sides. "I promise I won't punch him."

"Seriously?"

"What do you expect Asa?" he barked, not caring if Miles heard him or not. "I find out that the guy Dmitri warned me about turned out to be friggin Miles and it's freaking me out. I mean, it's so obvious, like, who else could it be? I like your brother, but there's just some things I can't forgive."

Asa shook his head at him in disbelief, his hands now planted on his hips, reminding Jared of a reprimanding mother. "You say that as if you know what happened between them. I don't even know that much!"

Jared breathed in sharply, a newfound anger boiling deep in his gut. "You knew?" His voice dropped low, not quite a whisper but enough to get his conflicted feelings across. He couldn't take any more revelations today, and he wished this wasn't all heading to where he thought it'd go. Asa knowing that it was Miles all along would be more than he could handle. He was already tangling with his tipping point, he didn't need his boyfriend's willful silence on top of it all.

Asa stared back at him, unmoving, sweat lining his cheeks. "…knew what?" he asked back stiffly, unconvincing in his ignorance, and it only made Jared want to scream.

"Don't fucking play cute with me, Asa," he growled, crowding him. "Did. You. Know?"

For the longest time, Asa didn't answer. He stared down headlong into Jared's fevered eyes, his nostrils flaring. Then, "Jared—"

"You fucking knew," Jared interrupted, his voice cracking, and finally got his answer in the way Asa guiltily dropped his gaze to the side, his lips grumpily downturned. "No. No, no, no, no, no…" He staggered back.

"I was trying to protect you," Asa blurted, reaching for him.

Evading him, Jared pressed the heels of his palms against his eye sockets, his breathing shallow. This was a never-ending nightmare. First, he struggled with saying 'I love you', then Miles had to go and reveal himself as the culprit, and Asa…lied to him. Pretended not to know who Mr. Harris was or who the person Miles had dated in college had been. Protect him? No. It'd been to protect Miles, because he knew how Jared would react. Dmitri was right all along: Asa wasn't who he appeared to be.

"I don't wanna hear it…"

"Jay, this isn't what you think—"

"How could you possibly know how I think!" He sucked in lungfuls of hot air, his eyes watering. He couldn't look at Asa, didn't want to. "I trusted you."

"You can still trust me," Asa pleaded, finally succeeding in gripping his elbows, forcing Jared to acknowledge him. The biker did appear apologetic, but Jared didn't think he could handle the situation anymore. He didn't even have a handle on it in the first place. "The thing between them, it doesn't concern us. Okay? I love you."

"How long have you known?" Jared blurted, blatantly ignoring that last part.

A shadowed look came over Asa's brow, his eyes wet but determined. "I… not long. I swear. I only knew his first name and a little of what he looked like. Miles never showed me a picture or anything, I just connected the dots. I thought if I kept it to myself that you'd be happier in the long run."

"Well. Congrats. You were dead wrong."

Asa's hands dropped to Jared's, gripping them tight. "Don't be like this, Jay. Please."

Jared wrenched away, resolutely keeping himself from buckling under the weight of Asa's reaction. He'd never seen someone fall apart in front of him before. In a morbid way, it was fascinating.

Asa's strong arms lifelessly fell like two ton weights at his sides, the hopeful gleam in his pretty brown eyes swallowed by some ugly monster. His chest heaved heavier, his nostrils a silent flare. His face, already red from the sun, turned a darker shade, his jaw clenching into a forced grimace that reminded Jared of all the times Asa got cross with him. It wasn't in anger this time, as his eyes immediately clouded over with tears, his generous mouth trembling before he finally let out an audible choke.

"I'm s-sorry."

Jared parted his lips to say something, apologize maybe, but Asa was suddenly being pulled out of the way. Miles stood in his place, glaring angrily up at Jared with his electric blue eyes. Jared hadn't even heard him get out of the car.

"Who the fuck are you to talk to Asa like that?" he barked, sending a nervous shiver skittering down Jared's spine.

Jared stepped back, the breath knocked out of him. He hadn't really accounted for Miles to scare him. He'd always seemed so demure. Then again, he was defending his little brother from a threat, a threat that was starting to feel so dumb and childish. Jared knew that Asa hadn't kept his mouth shut to be malicious, but still, he had kept a pretty big secret from him. And it sucked. He was allowed to be angry, wasn't he?

"Miles, it's fine," Asa tried to say unconvincingly, fruitlessly wiping at his eyes. Miles' lips drew into a hard line.

Jared's heart panged. God, he was such an ass. "Asa—"

"You better go," Miles interrupted, his voice low and deep, an animalistic growl. Jared felt it all the way into the marrow of his bones. Miles was small, didn't look strong, but Jared wasn't stupid enough to square up to him. The goth was more angry, defensive, weathered. He could see it in those eyes that Miles could, and would, easily make do with his unspoken promise to punch Jared in the face.

"Miles—" Asa tried to interject again, ready to defend Jared despite their shattered relationship, but Miles wasn't having it.

"Asa, go in the house—"

"But he's right to be upset!"

"Oh, he's upset?" Miles all but yelled. "He's upset! What about you, Ace? You don't get to be upset? Or me? I can barely think straight right now, but I'm not going around accusing the people closest to me of keeping secrets, secrets that have nothing to do with him!"

"Mr. Harris has everything to do with—" Jared attempted to interject, heat rising to his cheeks.

Abruptly, Miles squared up to him, all but looming over him, making Jared feel very, very small. He couldn't even open his mouth to defend himself. He knew he had crossed a line after mouthing off to Asa, but it only just now hit him that he had actually stepped point blank on a landmine.

"I'm only going to say this once," Miles said, no longer yelling; Jared tensed all the same. "You leave my brother alone. You leave Dmitri alone. If I fuckin' see you, I…" He closed his eyes, breathing deep. "I don't know what I'll do."

When he opened them, Jared was already hurrying away, his tailed tucked between his legs, humiliated. Asa was openly crying now, heaving on his sobs. A moment later, they were suddenly muffled, likely pressed into a shoulder. Jared's eyesight blurred, his lower lip trembling, but he couldn't look back. He had no right to.

He fucked up, and there was no fixing it.

X

A/N: Dramaaaaaaa!